BETA deadline day is upon us. The game is currently being prepared for the BETA submission. As a team we are going through the process of bug testing, refining any little details which we can iron out at the last minute.
Luke is focusing his attention on any technical issues, with the purpose of making sure the game plays smoothly when tests for the BETA submission. Thankfully, due to us consistently bug testing our game there isn’t many issues for Luke to fix before submission later today.
As for Nathan, his attention is focused on Game Design: ensuring all objects have the suitable colliders and collision detection is working efficiently. Once again, as we did this a lot during the production process of Bottled Up, there isn’t much for Nathan to fix.
Finally, I am working on creating any little last minute assets required for the game, besides the obvious bug testing, making sure the game is running smoothly. After this I will be back to creating promotional material for the end of year show. This includes: posters, banners, etc.
Any little changes made today, by any of us, are with the intentions of making the game as fun as possible to play. Our ultimate goal is to create an enjoyable gaming experience, with a visually appealing environment.
Overall, I am extremely happy with how my team has performed during this project. I am very pleased with the product we have been able to create and there is still more we can add to it before the final deadline. Luke and Nathan, have both been the ideal team mates, creating brilliant work and communicating perfectly with me so we all consistently know what we should be doing and what each other is doing.
As the Synoptic Project begins to draw closer and closer to its deadline we are spending a lot of time refining the game and preparing for the end of year show. Personally, I have been working on the art book, and promotional content for the game, as well as refining the GUI. Nathan has been working on the game design and adding in more particle effects. Finally, Luke has been working on establishing a main quest system the player can follow to play the game.
I believe the team has worked great during the entire process of creating Bottled Up, I couldn’t have asked for a better team. I feel like we have created a great product we can all be proud of. Therefore, by continuing to develop Bottled Up further, I can’t wait to see what the end result looks like.
Below I have included a picture of my personal production schedule which shows that almost all tasks have been completed as we get closer to the important deadline. However, despite how daunting the deadline is, we are all eagerly waiting for the deadline so that we can showcase our game at the end of year show and receive feedback from all of our friends and peers.
In this post I will be discussing the inspiration behind Ye Olde Simulator, The Imagined World project I recently worked on as one of my main projects in year two. For this project I worked in a team of six. This included; myself (2D/3D Artist), Nathan Richardson (3D Artist), Luke Mcfarlane (Programmer), Max Ansell (Animator), Matthew Dickson (Programmer), Bence Franko (Animator). As you can see from the roles of the team, there was only two 3D artists, one obviously being myself, meaning I am the ideal person to be talking about the reference used for our Imagined World as myself and Nathan created all of the visuals for the game.
Immediately, we knew as a team we wanted to create a fun, stylized game with a unique spin on other games version of this style. Two games that instantly caught our attention, visually, were Zelda Breath of the Wild, and Sea of Thieves. Both are absolutely stunning games aesthetically, as well as fun to play. Despite both games influencing Ye Olde Simulator it was Ryan Stevenson, the art director for Sea of Thieves, that inspired our game the most, and will therefore be the subject of this post.
I have included an image below from Sea of Thieves. I chose this image in particular as it is the image I personally feel had the most impact on the games art style. When creating our Imagined World we ensured that our island was full of greenery and surrounded by clear, blue water. As well as this we obviously followed the stylized theme throughout the entire game, something I feel Sea of Thieves does perfectly. Ryan Stevenson was able to create the ideal balance between detail and stylized to keep the game fun and quirky to play but visually appealing on a next level. I really admire his usage of low poly models to create an optimized game while retaining the games outstanding professional appearance. This is something we also strongly tried to follow in the footsteps of. Myself and Nathan tried to keep our models as low poly and optimized as possible while getting as much detail in them as we could. One method we used was baking in substance painter, once we’d firstly 3D modeled the low then high poly version of the model. This process also often followed after the sculpting process, which allowed us to create the effect of geometry being there when it wasn’t. Now this most definitely isn’t a method created by Rare ltd, however, it is definitely a technique that Ryan and his team mastered for the creation of Sea of Thieves.
Island from Sea of Thieves
I have included another image from Sea of Thieves below, however, this time it is some of the characters from the game. I chose this image as I feel it not only highlights the reference we used when creating our characters, but also the up close details of the smaller objects which you will see have influence the smaller assets in Ye Olde Simulator.
Taking a closer look at the characters you can see where Nathan took his reference from when creating the NPC’s / main character. For example; the stylized style (solid colours with hand painted detail), the bright, bold colours which define each character. In Ye Olde Simulator, colours were a key aspect of the characters as they defined their roles and what they did. An example of this is how the miners wore a grey coloured uniform. Whereas, farmers wore a yellow-ish uniform. This feature allowed the player to easily identify the correct group of characters to set/monitor their roles and tasks.
Looking once again back at the other assets in the scene, my point regarding low poly assets with lots of added detail, is further supported. Certain assets, for example the rope, is a great example of detail being baked onto a lower poly model. The detail is retained, while keeping the game as optimized as possible. As I also previously mentioned, this was a key thing Sea of Thieves inspired during the creation of Ye Olde Simulator.
Characters from Sea of Thieves
Furthermore, the entirety of Sea of Thieves is full of subtle but effective particle effects which really enhance the games stylized and interactive appeal. This is also something we tried to replicate in Ye Olde Simulator, to enhance our playful feel, and help bring the game to life. An example of how we used particle effects / lights includes the building lights coming on upon it turning night and it depending on the NPC’s being inside the building. Personally, I love this feature as it made the game feel alive as the characters interacted with different buildings. Other examples includes: fire and smoke particles which were often paired together to once again solidify the feeling that it is a living world. This was a massive goal we set out to achieve during the process of creating Ye Olde Simulator and we believe we were very successful in achieving this.
In conclusion, Ryan Stevenson did an amazing job as art director guiding his team to create a visually amazing game. The reference we were able to take from Sea of Thieves allowed for us to make our Imagined World a very visually satisfying game while remaining optimized due to the low poly baked assets we created. We are all happy with the product we created in such as short period of time with a small team of only six people. Finally, Thank you to Ryan for his artist contribution to Sea of Thieves which inspired the creation of Ye Olde Simulator.
Today we received feedback on Bottled Up, after our routine synoptic project check. This blog post will cover the feedback we received. What our next steps our, and how we feel about our current progress.
” Still progressing very well guys – just be aware of that looming deadline and try to be realistic with what you can fully finish by then. Prioritize your time, ignore tiny little bugs that don’t affect the full experience, as they probably aren’t the best use of your time now. All the feedback about the aesthetics and feel still stand from previous reviews, it’s a great world you have built and far beyond what we could reasonably demand from most students at your age and level – be proud of it! Your production management and communication is all great but a little spread out, try to make sure everything is linked through a central location (hack n plan makes sense) think how your documents would look to an outsider or examiner, too. You can also start thinking about how you will use the space at the end of year show. College will cover a poster or 2 but you could look to theme the area around your machines with physical props.”
Firstly, we are very grateful for the feedback we have received. Secondly, in response to the feedback we plan on continuing to refine the game further: adding in particle effects, sound effects, screen shake, etc. The plan is that these effects will help bring the game to life and heighten the players gaming experience. As stated we need to organize our project planning better for marking purposes. Therefore, we will be organizing all of the planning documents together so that they can be located and marked with ease. This will not only benefit the marker but also ourselves when we require this information for working on the project. Finally, I have began working on promotional content for the game. As well as this I am also beginning to work on the end of year showcase presentation.
As the game deadline begins to draw closer, we are working very hard as a team to progress the game as far as possible. We want to push Bottled Up as far as we can take it, making it look and play as well as possible.
Currently myself and Nathan are working to create more assets for the game to give it more depth. We feel that the more there is to see and interact with, the more enjoyable the game will be to play. Linking to this, Luke is busy working on new mechanics for spells to increase what the player has the ability to do.
The entire time throughout this project we have always aimed to make the game look as good as possible. Aas a team we love admiring the art, in very visually appealing games. Therefore, we set out to great a game similar to this: ensuring that we create consistent models which match the games ascetic and pair well with our chosen shaders / particle effects.
Personally, I believe we are making very good progress. Upon viewing the production schedule we are on track and beyond our targets. We have worked very effectively as a team to create the best project we possibly could. Myself, Luke and Nathan are all very passionate about what we do, and I feel that this is represented through our game.
After a well needed break during half term, our team has came back fresh faced and eager to get back to work. We have immediately began production on the final stages of the game, before submission in June. I am confident in my team that we will create a great looking synoptic project. Therefore, I am looking forward to the showcase when we get to finally let other people play our game.
Currently, we are all working on refining the game to get the most enjoyable gaming experience. Nathan and myself are working on increasing the environment (creating more assets), as well as creating more enemies and weapons to enhance the players combat experience. Mean while, Luke is working on refining the jump animation. As well as this, he has just completed the combat system: ensuring all the animations flow perfectly.
Finally, our next steps are to complete our asset lists, get them implemented and perfect all of the little bugs and such. Sounds straight forward, but a lot of work is still to be done. However, despite this, we all feel that we are in a comfortable position to submit a polished game by the synoptic project deadline.
As the days go by Bottled Up is continuing to progress very nicely. The new world is already looking better than the previous, the UI is being revamped to a more mystical/fantasy style, more enemies are being created and the town is gradually coming together. As well as this from a more technical stand point the movement system has been greatly developed and improved, and swimming is being introduced as this post is being wrote.
Next steps include; continuing to expand the world, adding more spells, finishing the swimming and implementing the town, along with more UI and quests. We hope that by doing all of this, it will result in us having the best quality game we can possibly make and that we can be proud of.
Currently, Nathan is working on world expansion, while Luke is working on interaction improvements, and I am working on revamping the UI. I am confident in my team, that we can create what we have set out to create. We have all made great progress that I couldn’t be happier with.
We have decided that our minimal viable product will be the submission we made for YGD BAFTA, as we feel that the game is at a solid point at this period in time, and we are currently extending the game, meaning that submitting the game now would result in a not so great player experience, compared to the submission we have already made.
By simplifying the current state of the game to the submission we made for BAFTA, ensures that the MVP is a fun/playable game that showcases our work effectively. However, once the work we are currently working on has been complete they will be featured in the BETA/Final Submission in the hopes of creating the best game possible.
The MVP currently consists of a forest and graveyard scene, in which the player is able to complete quests, interact with players, be involved with combat with enemy characters and way more. As well as this you are able to enter the old mans house and pick up items from around the map. Finally, there is also a hidden message that runs throughout the game.
As we have already achieved our MVP deadline we are continuing to work towards the final submission of the game. Constantly creating new assets and mechanics to bring the game to life. Personally, I am working on developing the town to add a whole new area to the game for quests and interaction.
Evidence of our production schedules are below
Previous BAFTA/MVP production scheduleCurrent Synoptic Project Production Schedule
Now that Bottled Up has been submitted for a YGD BAFTA, I thought it would be a good time to do a reflection on our progress and talk about our plans for the future of the game.
Obviously, we plan to continue to develop Bottled Up for the synoptic project, as the BAFTA was very limiting in the rules and guidelines, and we have big plans for our game. We are privileged to have had the opportunity to enter for the YGD BAFTA competition, and we are thankful for the opportunity. However, the 250 mb size limit especially, was difficult to stick too, as we want to continue to expand our game to a fully fleshed out game.
As a team I am very happy with all of the progress we have made, we have encountered a few hiccups along the way but nothing that held us back enough, to prevent us from submitting our game. And I am sure that nothing will hold us back in the future to prevent us from submitting the best Synoptic project we possibly can. I am very pleased with the team spirit and work ethic that everyone has been showing, I couldn’t have asked for more of a determined team.
As for next steps, I don’t want to disclose too much, as there is a lot to come. However, we do plan on introducing more; areas, quests, gear (different rarities), as well as NPC’s and more.
As the BAFTA deadline draws closer, the push is really on to get the game to the highest standard we possibly can. We are all very passionate, as a team, about the game we have created, and we all want to see it do well. Therefore, we are putting the maximum effort into to creating the best game we truly can as of right now.
Most recently, we are all working on polishing the game; introducing UI art, menu systems and game sound. I have been creating all the UI art myself, while Luke programmed the menus it was being used for and Nathan sourced and implemented the sounds to really help bring the game to life. Are goal is to create a polished game, with a truly subversive feel to it.
As well as this I have been completing all of the questions for the BAFTA submission sheet to ensure it is done with plenty of time to spare and with good detail so that, it is the best possible description/explanation of our game we could submit. Below is how we described Bottled Up.
Bottled Up is a very unique adventure, quest based game, set in a mystical, medieval realm. You play as Wladmir; a rouge who wakes up to his entire garrison gone. Your ultimate goal is to find out what happened to your garrison by completing quests to gain gold, equipment and learn new spells. Depending on your interaction with other NPC’s, it will affect how your story plays out. Throughout the entire game, there is a hidden message which also warrants the name Bottled Up, the player’s aim is to find out what happened to Wladmir’s garrison, as well as his deep secret.
For Wladmir’s deep secret we decided to have him suffering from depression, as it is a subject that largely hits home for all of us. We want to be able to raise awareness for this globally, neglected problem. Throughout the game, Wladmir can be seen making notes and putting them in a bottle (hence the name Bottled Up). As the game progresses the notes form the story of the game and can viewed from the inventory system. The more the game is played the more players will be able to read into the notes and find out that Wladmir is struggling with depression and doesn’t know how to talk to anyone about it. This is a pressing problem that a lot of suffers currently struggle with. This is why we want to be able to raise awareness for this through our game. Ultimately, the target for the end of the game is for Wladmir to conquer his issues and open up to his garrison, once he finds them.
As well as the notes alluding to the hidden message throughout the game. There is also scenes, for example the graveyard scene, which hits at foreshadowing of Wladmir’s ultimate death, if nothing changes. This has been introduced to help cement the idea of the hidden message and to intrigue players to find out the mystery of the game.
As the game has to be PEGI 12 and below, but we wanted a form of combat system to match the games adventure/quest based style. We have introduced a unique combat system which involved immobilizing (stunning) enemies, rather than killing them. Therefore, there is no death, blood/guts, and no reasoning that the game can’t be aimed at a younger audience. This was a big goal for us to achieve and we are very happy with the way we paired our art style and different mechanics to create the overall product we have ended up with.
Bailey Brian (how we described our game to BAFTA).
Finally, we have been working great as a team and I am very happy with all of my teams progress. As well as this there has been no issues which required us to be delayed or that diverted us away from polishing our game up for the next week and a bit. I am grateful for this as it allows us to continue to clean the game up as much as possible.
Bailey Brian 